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Industry coaxes Canadian women to don hard hats: Goar

Electricity sector in Canada launches marketing blitz to normalize women in hard hats and work boots.

Rosie the Riveter was introduced to encourage women in the U.S. to join the workforce during the Second World War. (AP file photo)

Facing an impending shortage of skilled workers, the electricity industry in Canada has launched a campaign to persuade women to become engineers, electricians, power line technicians, construction millwrights, power station operators and industrial mechanics.

The prospect of steady full-time work with a salary in the $70,000 range and an assurance of job security ought to be enough to convince women to shed their gender stereotypes. Sadly, it is not.

“Even in 2014, there are girl occupations and boy occupations,” says Michelle Branigan, chief executive of Electricity Human Resources Canada, a not-for-profit organization that strives to provide power companies with a steady supply of trained workers. “We have to challenge gender norms at an early age.”

There is some urgency. The electricity industry faces a major shortage of skilled workers in the coming years. It needs 23,000 new recruits by 2016 just to replace retiring baby boomers. When the imperative of upgrading Canada’s half-century-old power grid is factored in, the number balloons.

Women are the sector’s largest untapped labour pool. Hoping to change that, the industry group has launched a $350,000 campaign called Bridging the Gap. It aims to persuade women to become engineers, electricians, power line technicians, construction millwrights, power station operators and industrial mechanics.

Women currently make up 25 per cent of the electricity industry’s workforce, but they are heavily concentrated in administration and marketing. “We want to get them working on the technical side,” Branigan says.

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Step one is an ad blitz showcasing women doing jobs traditionally considered men’s work. Step two is to make Electricity Human Resources Canada’s website a one-stop source of knowledge for women seeking information about career opportunities in the sector, the courses they needed (young women often drop math and sciences in high school), the post-secondary training required and how they could link up with female mentors in the field.

As early as 2005, employers in the electricity sector foresaw two serious problems coming down the pipeline at once. They had an aging workforce at the very time Canada’s electricity infrastructure needed a massive overhaul. To complicate matters, other industries — oil and gas, for example — were already facing skill shortages. The competition for talent was going to be fierce. They had to get in the game early.

Their objective was to develop a modern-day version of the Rosie the Riveter campaign used in the Second World War. But converting the vision into a practical strategy took time.

It also took hard-headedness. As Branigan did the field research — talking to young women, teachers, guidance counsellors, college and university students and feminists in the workforce — she discovered women hadn’t made as much progress as she thought.

Although the number of women taking engineering is edging upward, most of them are studying civil engineering (buildings and bridges). The percentage going into electrical engineering has steadily declined. “We don’t know what’s going on.”

One of the reasons young women who excel in math and science don’t see themselves as future engineers, mechanics, electricians, millwrights and heavy equipment operators is that so few women are visible in these roles. When photos of generating stations and power plants are in the news, the only employees in sight are men. When there is a power outage, male repair crews are sent out. After last December’s ice storm, it was men who got people’s lights back on.

The attitudes of boys and men, who have stronger occupational stereotypes than their female counterparts, continue to shape the career choices of girls and women.

Older men in the electricity field are more open to working alongside women than their younger counterparts.

Most of these trend lines are heading in the wrong direction. That is why marketing is such a strong component of Bridging the Gap. Until women see technical vocations as a legitimate career path, they’re not likely to seek information on the qualifications they need. Until men see women as capable colleagues, they’re not going to get a fair chance to prove themselves.

The organizers don’t expect instant success. They haven’t set target dates or deadlines. The campaign will run as long as it’s needed.

Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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